The invention relates generally to radio frequency amplifiers and, more particularly, to integrated radio frequency amplifiers.
Radio frequency (RF) circuits that are integrated onto a semiconductor chip for use in wireless communications are becoming increasingly popular. RF circuits typically include one or more resonant circuit portions that limit operation of the RF circuit to a frequency range of interest. Because of variations in the circuit fabrication process, however, the resonant frequency of RF circuits often needs to be tuned after circuit fabrication to achieve the desired frequency range. For non-integrated RF circuits, this tuning procedure is often done manually by physically adjusting the device structures. Such physical tuning is time consuming and labor intensive and adds significantly to the overall manufacturing cost of RF circuits. For integrated RF circuits, it is not normally desirable and sometimes even impossible to perform similar physical adjustments.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus for tuning integrated RF circuits.